What we will miss...

As our time in Singapore is nearing an end we have thought a lot about what we will miss about living here and what we look forward to back in Austin. 

Things we will miss about living in Singapore:

• Public transportation - we will probably miss this the most.  The public transportation is excellent.
• Travel - it is easy to travel to a lot of really great places from Singapore - flights are inexpensive and Singapore is a hub for all flights in Asia.  Also, the Singapore airport (Changi) is amazing.
• Airlines - we will miss Singapore Airlines (aka "SQ").  Best airline in the industry in our opinion.  Quite frankly we have enjoyed avoiding any American-based airline.
• Friends - we have made a lot of great friends that we will miss.  Some of the most interesting, worldly, and cool people we know.
• Our apartment complex - we live in an incredible apartment with beautiful grounds, friendly staff, and some great neighbors.  The pool is amazing and right at our doorstep, as well as tennis courts, playground, and a fish pond.
• Our maid/helper.
• 365 days of nice weather!
• Conveniences of living in a big city.
• The American Club - Dell offers a nice perk in paying for a membership to the American Club.  This has been a huge perk and one we were so grateful to have.  Lots of great stuff for the kids and a little piece of home for us.
• Doctor visits - the doctors here are great and getting appointments is easy.  After any doctor's visit rather than making an extra trip to the pharmacy, any drugs prescribed are dispensed right at the doctor's office.  Very convenient.
• 7am/7pm is sunrise/sunset 365 days a year - the sunrise and sunset is incredibly predictable, which makes it easy to explain to kids when it is time to go to bed and time to wake up.
• Singapore is incredibly safe and clean, which we appreciate as parents.
• The cultural mix - Singapore is 77% Chinese, 13% Malay, 9% Indian, (Eurasians Arabs and others make up the remainder).  It has been a good experience for us to live as a minority and to experience cultures that we were less familiar with before we came.
• Little India and the amazing Indian food it has to offer.
• American Politics (or lack thereof) - we get to avoid the endless political nonsense from "carnival barkers" on CNN and Fox News. 
• Free grocery delivery!

What we won't miss:

• Cost of living - price of alcohol, groceries, eating out, etc. is much higher than Austin.
• The humidity - while we enjoy the nice weather, the humidity is hard to handle sometimes and is often unbearable.
• No seasons - there is only one season: humid summer.  We miss fall and spring...and a day or two of winter :-)
• Language barrier - while English is an official language, often when we are speaking "English" with locals it sounds like a different language.  When we first arrived we understood a mere fraction of conversations, but now we can understand 95% - 100% of most conversations. We understand 0% of Singapore logic.
• Apartment living - even though our apartment complex is nice and our unit is nice, we are tired of living in an apartment!  We look forward to living in a house again.
• The construction noise!!!
• Taxi drivers. (I could write an entire blog post on this one)
• Marble floors + toddlers.
• Late night conference calls with the US and Europe.
• Aircon - the aircon system and aircon maintenance is suspect.  The simple fact that quarterly maintenance on aircon is required was the first red flag.
• Pushing strollers - for miles in the humidity.  Without a car we often use walking as our mode of transport...and pushing strollers can sometimes be a chore.
• "Service" in Singapore (an oxymoron)
• Banking - the multiple accounts in two countries, moving money between accounts, getting cash from the ATM once a day for weeks at a time, and the dreaded credit card decline because we can't switch money from accounts fast enough.
• The time zone difference with the US (14 hours in the fall) and the distance from family and friends.
• The ridiculously long flight back to the US and the US airlines we have to use to get there.
• Singaporeans who will not break the rules, no matter what.
• Football games on Sunday morning - it just isn't right.
• Clothing sizes - clothes are sized for smaller sizes (i.e. Asians are smaller).  Matt still hasn't been able to buy anything here that isn't custom tailored.
• The local "QUESO" just won't be missed at all.  Local versions of queso are best described as movie-theater cheese.

To The States and Back!

Whew!  What a trip!  Last night we got back to Singapore after two weeks in Austin.  It was Jack and Kara's first time to visit the US and our first time to travel as a family to Texas.  The flights were long, but overall not too bad.  The kids were great travelers!  We only had two vomit episodes in flight and even though we lost track of screaming and crying, our memories will only remember the good times so it is as if the crying never happened!

We had an amazing time in Texas!  The kids love our house in Austin, we got to spend some great time with family and friends, we ate our share of queso, Jack cleaned out the town of chips and salsa, and we wore out CC and Pa's "Shrek" collection.  Such great memories.  Only four more months until our move back to Austin!!

Some of our favorite pictures from the trip...

The girls ready for trick-or-treating with some friends:

Ainsley enjoying the playground near our house:

 Jack playing with worms in our backyard:

Kara showing off her face painting (Central Market):

Ainsley telling tall tales to Grandpa D while getting the fire started:

Eating smores:

 Kara being silly with Pa:

CC baking cake with the girls:

At Zilker Park with Aunt Heather and Grandma D:

Kara on the swings with Aunt Heather:

Ainsley and Kara playing with friends at Waterloo:

Kara being silly:

We owe huge thanks to CC and Pa for all they did to make our stay as good as it was, and also huge thanks to Grandma D, Grandpa D, Aunt Heather, Uncle Luke and Emma for flying to Austin to see us.  The kids are lucky to have such loving family :-)

Flat Tire

Our Mountain buggy suffered a blow, putting us without our "car" for a few days.  The kids helped daddy to fix the flat.  You can see Ainsley is putting the tube in, Kara is pumping the air, and Jack is inspecting the tools.  This is about as handy as we get living in an apartment and the kids were so excited they could barely stand it.  It compared only to the exciting project of changing light bulbs last month :-)

Saturday we met some friends at the top of the new Marina Bay Sands, at the Ku De Ta bar.  I did a horrible job of taking pictures once we got there, but it was cool and the view was really nice. 

My new hair cut (I cut four inches off)...

My horrible picture of an amazing view...

Fashion Plates

Do our kids have a future in fashion?  They sure like to pick out their own looks, and we let them.  We laugh at the ensembles they come up with, but then again, who are we to judge?  This could be the future of fashion...

Artistic Expressions

Ainsley has improved her drawing skills lately and we love the pictures she is drawing of the family.  The first picture is one she drew of mommy and daddy, the second one is of the whole family...

Jack likes the spinning platform on the lego box.  He doesn't actually build anything with the legos, he just puts legos on the spinning platform and watches them spin around.

Kara looking cute in pig tails...

Playdoh :-)

Leaving for school Thursday morning to celebrate Children's day, thus the costumes...

Growth Spurt

Can you guess who has had a growth spurt?

Last week on our ride home from school the taxi driver was wearing gloves.  Ainsley said, "Mom, why is uncle wearing socks on his fingers?"  I then had to try and explain what gloves are for...and ended up digging out a pair Matt bought last winter in China to let Ainsley try them on.

Jack finally decided he wanted to wear his big boy underwear!  He only wore them for an hour before he was back in diapers, but at least he is entertaining the idea!

Arts and crafts time!!  Ainsley spent 30 minutes putting tattoos on herself and Kara while Jack worked on his masterpiece crayon drawing while also watching "Cars" on the tv.

Today we saw a woman in a wedding dress and Ainsley says..."Mommy, when I get big, big, bigger maybe I will wear a wedding dress and get married.  I will marry my daddy!"  

Tonight before bedtime Ainsley says, "Mom, you are the best mommy ever!"

:-) smiles 

End of Hari Raya

MMI (the kid's school) held a celebration for Hari Raya and taught the parents and the students about the holiday.  Hari Raya is a muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.  The teachers performed songs and dances and treated us to some traditional Malaysian food and sweets.  Ainsley volunteered to dance on stage with her teacher (Miss Lynn) showing off her skills with a Malay dance.  Jack and Kara paid attention for the first 15 minutes but then I spent the rest of the time chasing them around the school grounds.  

Matt's new iPad is not only his favorite toy but also the kids!  Matt downloaded some kid games and they LOVE playing games with daddy.

Cuties hamming it up for the camera...

We bought some dress-up outfits for the kids and Ainsley and Jack enjoyed wearing theirs most of the weekend.  Kara wasn't in the mood but wore her new slippers.

Kara is officially out of diapers (during awake time) and is doing really well.  Jack is still happy wearing his diapers and since we only have one left in diapers now we don't mind :-)  

We remember a distinct time period when Ainsley's brain seemed to "click" and she seemed to understand the world around her and could communicate effectively.  We then noticed the same click with Kara 2 or 3 months ago.  Over the past week Jack appears to have passed this moment as well.  It became suddenly apparent that Jack understands everything around him, he participates in conversations, listens and responds, and just "gets it" so to speak.  We knew this time was coming from watching Kara, and now it has!  We no longer feel like we have babies or toddlers, just three amazing kids!